British mortgage approvals down for November

In Britain, the Building Societies Association (BSA) reports that new approvals for home mortgages were down 7.2% in November from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted level of £4.42bn (€6.28bn).

On a year-on-year basis, approvals for new home mortgages were up 26.4% in November.

This is the lowest level of home mortgage approvals, on a seasonally-adjusted basis, since June.

In October, approvals fell 4% to £4.76bn (€6.76bn).

Building societies' gross advances, or the total value of mortgages, fell 6.7% to a seasonally adjusted £4.45bn (€6.32bn).

Adrian Coles, the BSA's director-general, said there is little sign of a slowdown in building society mortgage activity, with levels of lending well above those of a year ago.